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Family History on a Plate

The walls at Solano’s Lincoln Lounge are covered with photographs of customers and family as well as relics from beer and spirits past.Credit
Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times

Bob Solano was 10 years old when he started working at the Lincoln Lounge, the restaurant his parents owned in Mount Vernon. His job then was to sort the beer bottles.

“Those were the days they had two-cent deposits,” he recalled on a recent afternoon. “I used to go down to the cellar and sort the beer: Knickerbocker, Ballantine, Miller High Life.” He spent his earnings — “they gave me a quarter” — at the local candy store.

The Solano family lived within walking distance of the restaurant, at the corner of Lincoln and Stevens Avenues, and all eight of Raymond and Ida’s children helped out.

Mr. Solano eventually took over the establishment. He ran the kitchen, keeping his parents’ dishes and recipes — the Lincoln Lounge was known then, as it is now, for its delicious pan pizza — and adding steaks, chops and lobsters. And he was the face of the place, logging 14-hour days in the 1960s and ’70s, when the Lincoln Lounge stayed open until 3 a.m.

As the years passed, the polished wood walls acquired more photographs — of Mr. Solano and his wife, Dee, who discovered on their first date that they had been born in the same hospital on the same day, delivered by the same doctor; and of the Solanos and their four children, nine grandchildren and some sons- and daughters-in-law. A picture of their 50th wedding anniversary party at the Davenport Club in New Rochelle in 2012 is nothing but smiles.

There’s a framed newspaper article about Mr. Solano’s brother Peter, who works at the restaurant and is a professional clarinetist, and photographs of customers like the actor Michael Imperioli, who was born in Mount Vernon, and Bo Dietl, the cable news commentator and former New York police detective.

There’s an extensive archive of beer and spirits past on those walls, too: a “Rheingold Salutes Gil Hodges” tray, a Genesee beer tap, a Schmidt clock, a plaque for Schenley whisky.

Photo

The family is selling the restaurant, which is known for its pizza.Credit
Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times

If someone who had never been to the Lincoln Lounge asked him what the restaurant was all about, Mr. Solano would say: “History. A lot of history. You come in and the last 50 years hit you in the face.”

On May 23, probably around midnight, maybe a couple of hours later, the Solano family’s 65-year run at the Lincoln Lounge will come to a close. Mr. Solano, 74, who said he has had some health problems, recently agreed to sell the restaurant to Mark Stagg, a Westchester County developer and frequent customer. Mr. Stagg, whose company has its headquarters in Mount Vernon, plans to “continue the legacy of the Solano family,” he said. “We just want to keep the tradition.”

“The pizza is second to none,” he added. “I’m a hot pepper guy.”

Mr. Dietl, a longtime regular at the famously impenetrable Rao’s restaurant in East Harlem, said he would miss the family’s stewardship of the restaurant that is formally called Solano’s Lincoln Lounge.

“It’s just a great environment,” he said of the place he has referred to as “Rao’s North.” “They make everyone feel welcome. I loved going there,” he added. “It’s like Elaine’s closing!”

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There will be free bowls of hot peppers and olives to start a meal. A waitress — it could be Bonnie Barbara, who has worked at the Lincoln Lounge for more than 40 years — will suggest an order of feathery fried calamari, and the mixed salad with romaine, vinegar peppers, pepperoncini, provolone, soppressata and Italian dressing, served family-style in a woven wood bowl.

The pies can be a main course — there’s also a particularly good version with sliced potatoes — but then you’d miss out on the terrific broiled shell steak, served sizzling on a silvery platter (the sauce, made of balsamic vinegar and teriyaki sauce, has just the right salty smack), or the prodigiously garlicky cavatelli, with broccoli rabe and sweet-and-hot sausage made by Picone’s in Mamaroneck.

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Solano’s Lincoln Lounge pizza.Credit
Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times

The smartest strategy is simply to order it all, with wine recommended by Carolyn Rossetti, one of Mr. Solano’s daughters, who has been managing the restaurant for the past 10 years.

On a Saturday night last month — when the soundtrack featured everything from Sinatra singing “Strangers in the Night” to “Tequila” by the Champs — I asked Ms. Barbara about the bottles displayed on a shelf in the dining room, all priced at $25.

“Those are the house wines,” she said. “For the high-end stuff you have to see Carolyn,” gesturing toward the bar five feet away. Ms. Rossetti was enthusiastic about a Jorio Montepuliciano for $38. (How can you not love a place where the difference between the everyday and the living-it-up is $13?)

After the pizza and pasta and wine are gone, another tradition: a plate piled high with small zeppole dusted with powdered sugar, on the house.

Many of these dishes are on the menu for the Solano family celebration that will be held after all the customers have been attended to on the 23rd. Mr. Solano’s brother will fly in from Texas, his sister from Ohio. Ms. Rossetti, her sister, Donna Rosell, and brothers Michael and Rob Solano, all of whom are at the Lincoln Lounge at least one day a week, will be there. The grandkids, too — two of them, Michael Rossetti and Robbie Solano, also work at the restaurant. And Mrs. Solano, of course (one thing he learned about succeeding in the restaurant business, Mr. Solano said, is “you have to be married to a special person”).

There will be pizza — “because they grew up on it,” Mr. Solano said — and Ms. Rossetti thinks there is a good chance they will finish the wine.

There will be memories on the plates, in the air, on the walls.

I asked Mr. Solano what he enjoyed most about the business, and his response would not surprise anyone who has had even one meal at his Lincoln Lounge.

“The camaraderie,” he said. “Meeting the people.” He paused for a brief moment. “Meeting the people.”

Correction: May 17, 2015

A dining review in some editions last Sunday about Solano’s Lincoln Lounge in Mount Vernon, N.Y., misidentified the musical instrument played by the restaurant owner’s brother Peter Solano. It is the clarinet, not the cornet.

Solano’s Lincoln Lounge

209 Stevens AvenueMount Vernon(914) 664-9747

THE SPACE Feels like a festive family room: Strings of white lights; a photo of Kramden and Norton from “The Honeymooners.” Not wheelchair accessible, but arrangements can be made if you call ahead.

THE CROWD From sport coats to shorts. Lots of groups.

THE BAR Wine from $25 a bottle. A martini with the dimensions of a wading pool is $10.